Our science reading today was on the water cycle. Right away I remembered that we had this Pop Bottle Science Kit that might be of use to us. (Sadly, we've had it for a couple of years now and haven't used it yet - so I am so glad I remembered it for this topic!) I found an experiment in it right away that would help show the water cycle. It was called The Rain Maker. It was very simple and easy to follow, and luckily I had everything (lol)...hot water, ice and this handy-dandy bottle the kit came in.
The bottle is split in two (right between the words Pop and Bottle in the first picture). This made for great packaging to hold the book full of experiments and a few other tools - a mini beaker, measuring spoons, a cork and some balloons for other experiments. Plus having the split was helpful for this particular project.
We turned the top of the bottle upside down and filled it with ice. We filled the bottom part of the bottle half full with hot tap water. Then we placed the top part onto the bottom part. And we waited.
Right away we could see water vapor forming on the sides of the bottle. And it didn't take long for it to start to condense and form water droplets. It's a bit difficult to see in the pictures.
It did take a bit longer to see those water droplets finally "rain" back into the water. So, we picked up the top part. At which time we realized that all that condensation was dripping down, we just couldn't see it because it was rolling into the cap.
But we did get to see quite a bit drip back down into our water from this point. I'd say the experiment was a success! The book was very helpful and explained the process very clearly (even better than our science book). I was so pleased that we had this experiment to liven up our science reading today. As well as, bring us a clearer picture of the water cycle. I am looking forward to using this Pop Bottle science kit again, very soon!
If you're interested, here is the publishers web page for Pop Bottle Science (by the way, the author of this book is also the award-winning author of Bill Nye, the Science Guy):
But the best price I found was at Target for $10.46
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